Essay Sample on 21st Century Work

The nature of corporate America has gradually furcated into multiple rigid, obsolete and flexible variations since the Industrial Age. In the words of Marshall McLuhan (1969), “whenever the dragon’s teeth of technological change are sown, we reap a whirlwind of violence” (p.8). Through online recruitment, virtual jobs and freelancing, McLuhan’s theory of technological determinism can be used to analyze the societal changes and effects of technology on the American workforce and the non-American individual. Whilst it can be argued that the complex range of work opportunities in 21st century U.S.A offer for positive societal changes and cultural diversity to the corporate structure, the modern technological era has triggered more negative outcomes to the interpersonal nature of the workforce. 

Global Recruitment 

The modern technological era has allowed corporate America to have access to broader locations beyond the American demographic (Deen, 2017). Websites like USponsorme.com – an online career and recruitment marketplace - and the customer service industry have broken the barriers of geographical limitation as they have allowed for a culturally diverse workforce (Lennox & Segal, 2015). In the customer service industry specifically, it is arguable that emerging technologies “advance customer service effectiveness,” allowing for the demographics of communication within corporate America to be extended (p.28). Contrastingly, whilst arguments of the positive impacts can be valid, the negative impacts hold a larger form of power on the individual in this scenario.  

Joplin & Daus (1997) claim that perceived pressures play a ubiquitous role in the corporate desire to create diversity within the workforce. When this becomes the foundation, it is easy to identify a connection between the communication conflicts presented by McLuhan caused by the cultural environment formed by the media (McLuhan, 1969). Instead, it is more likely that the need for diversity may be perceived through racial assumptions. These assumptions may either be swallowed by the cultural majority through Americanization or simply falsified. For example, the misrepresentation through media about Asian individuals being successful because of superior natural intelligence deepens the complexity of diversity as cultural identity is miscommunicated (Hahner, 2017). In hindsight, the diverse needs of Asians in this predicament become overlooked, and their value in the workforce is compromised.  

Furthermore, in addition to diverse individuals being of minority to the race and culture of the workforce, the cultural diversity becomes compromised as the strengths are not fully utilized but instead tutored into becoming conformers to the American lifestyle. This is where Americanization disrupts the power dynamics of the allegedly diverse workforce because the ‘voice’ of the company is awarded to the dominant demographic, being the American demographic, and the minority workers are discouraged from challenging the norm (Hahner, 2017). In situations of cultural conflict, where values, beliefs and norms might disagree between coworkers, the culturally diverse individuals may, through Americanization, find themselves in a state of cognitive dissonance, deeply affecting the personal narratives presented in McLuhan’s theory of technological determination (1969). This “transformation of culture, values and attitudes” is believed to be the initiator of “identity loss” (p.5), and so the corporate environment of the United States dissolves the individuality of the culturally diverse, saturated by “Western civilization” (p.6) and constrained by the sociological structure of culture of corporate America (Hays, 1994).